LAPD officers complain about lack of pay raise at L.A. City Council meeting

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Armando Herman dressed as batman draws applause from a capacity crowd of LAPD officers as he asks the Los Angeles city council for more money for the LAPD at the Los Angeles city council meeting Tuesday, July 29, 2014. ( Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News )

In a show of support for their union, more than 300 Los Angeles police officers took over the Los Angeles City Council chambers on Tuesday to voice their grievance over the city’s refusal to include a pay raise in a contract they rejected earlier this month.

Sitting quietly in the chambers, wearing white Los Angeles Police Protective League T-shirts that read “We’ve got your back,” more than a dozen officers testified about the hardships they are facing because they have not gotten raises.

Protective League President Tyler Izen said he could not recall such an outpouring of anger from officers over the contract.

“We had nearly 6,000 officers vote on this and they overwhelmingly rejected the contract,” Izen said. “It represents a deep-seated frustration and anger with the department over pay, over discipline, over how they are treated.”

Izen said the union is prepared to return to the bargaining table as soon as the city is able to come up with a new proposal to discuss.

Mayor Eric Garcetti has resisted giving any pay increase to city workers while he grapples with the ongoing structural deficit in the budget. City officials have estimated a 1 percent increase in pay for police officers would cost $10 million, and $5 million in retirement costs.

Garcetti aides said the mayor had no comment on the demonstration and referred callers to a video prepared by the mayor addressing the union issues and pay for officers.

In it, Garcetti defended the contract as meeting three of the four main complaints raised by rank and file officers.

“You chose the LAPD and the LAPD chose you,” Garcetti said. “I don’t want to lose a single one of you.”

To the police officers, however, such talk did not resonate.

League Director Jerrita Sandoz said there is no comparison between civilian and sworn workers.

“It’s apples and oranges,” Sandoz said. “If you look, you will see LAPD officers are ranked 14th in pay compared with other agencies. We are the best, and we ask the city to treat us that way.”

Sandoz said the officers did not transfer to other agencies, such as the Department of Water and Power, that took on a number of workers.

“You didn’t lose officers because they transferred to the DWP. They left to join other law enforcement agencies,” Sandoz said

The contract proposal provided $70 million for overtime this year and $50 million to pay overtime that has been banked by the officers. It also provided a 20 percent increase in pay for the 1,000 officers hired at a lower pay rate over the past four years.

The beginning salary for police officers now is $54,000 a year.

But several of the officers said the pay has dropped in comparison to the cost of living and that many officers have lost their homes and now need to live with their families. Others say they have given up hope of ever purchasing a home.

League Director Kristi Eckard said the officers helped save the city hundreds of millions of dollars through salary reductions and other cuts.

“You are creating a toxic stew with long lasting problems,” Eckard said. “Public safety cannot come on the cheap any longer.”